WHAT IMPACT WILL BREXIT HAVE ON THE …...WHAT IMPACT WILL BREXIT HAVE ON THE TEACHING PROFESSION? As the UK’s eventual exit from the EU finally draws near, more stringent rules

WHAT IMPACT WILL BREXIT HAVE ON THE TEACHING PROFESSION?As the UK’s eventual exit from the EU finally draws near, more stringent rules around the recruitment of overseas teachers will place further pressure on already challenging recruitment targets…

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CONTENTS

3 THE DOUBLE BIND

4 DECLINING NUMBERS

5 LANGUAGE PROBLEM

8 WHERE DO SCHOOLS STAND ON IMMIGRATION POLICY?


It’s evident that teaching in the UK is inextricably linked to activities within the EU.

Department for Education figures show that almost 5,000 teachers from EU countries qualified to teach in 2016, up from just over 2,000 in 2010, with the largest numbers from Spain, Greece, Poland and Romania. However, figures from the end of 2018 revealed a decrease of 25% in EU teachers applying for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England. QTS was awarded to just 3,525 qualified teachers from the European Economic Area (EEA) during the last measurement period, suggesting there has been a notable decline in European teachers considering a teaching career in the UK since the referendum.

Given these statistics, it’s clear that whatever the outcome of the current political wranglings over Brexit, the teaching profession has little to gain. The UK government has pledged to recognise teaching qualifications gained in other EU countries up until December 2020, but no solid agreement has been reached on mutual recognition after the departure date, despite reassurances being made.


It’s estimated that around 3.5% of secondary school teachers are non-UK EU citizens, a sizeable chunk of the workforce. And the fact the teaching system is already under immense pressure means schools are in a “double bind”, according to Jules White, headteacher at Tanbridge House School in Horsham. “It feels as though those in charge of immigration have not given our profession the protected status it needs,” he says. “We have to draw applicants from as wide a pool as possible, from anywhere we have links to specialist skills, such as modern foreign language teachers. We already face budget pressures, so if we don’t have enough raw material in terms of high-quality staff, we’re in a double bind.”

The fact is, schools are already struggling with teacher attrition, regardless of nationality. According to the latest School Workforce Census, the number of applications to teach in primaries has been rising – however the leaving rate for primary school teachers has also risen between 2011/12 and 2017/18. Fewer working-age teachers are being retained, while the number of teachers making it to retirement has more than halved. Aside from the recruitment difficulties created by Brexit, schools face acute shortages of candidates for subjects such as maths, modern languages and physics, and many graduates are put off joining the profession because they fear ever-longer working hours for lower pay than they might get in a comparable professional occupation.

THE DOUBLEBIND



DECLINING NUMBERSOne of the challenges is identifying why EU teachers

are not applying at the same volume as before,

or why they are leaving, according to Jack Worth,

lead economist at the National Foundation for

Educational Research. “There isn’t any large-scale

data capture about the nationality of teachers who

are leaving the profession,” he says. “What we do

know is there was a large increase in EU citizens

looking to get QTS between 2010 and 2016, and that

this has dropped since, but you won’t necessarily

know what they planned to do with that qualification

and the trends are different between primary and

secondary. Brexit may be a factor but the most

prominent reason for leaving is workload.” NFER’s

recent report, Teacher Workforce Dynamics in

England, paints a picture of stress, long hours and

an exodus of long-serving teachers needing to be

replaced by newly qualified recruits.

Emma Hollis, executive director of the National

Association of Schools-Based Teacher Trainers,

argues that uncertainty over what will happen

after Brexit has exacerbated an already desperate

problem.

“This is the sixth year of not meeting the Teacher

Supply Model [the mechanism used by the DfE to

allocate teacher training places] target,” she says.

“We know that there’s a huge problem with teacher

retention and the knock-on effect of that is that

we have to recruit more. We have fewer graduates

available to the teacher training market. I know of

a school in the south-west where at least one of

their new trainee teachers each year has been from

the EU – and it would be much higher in London.

We struggle to attract people into the profession

anyway and if the [immigration system] makes them

feel like they aren’t welcome, it’s understandable

why applications have gone down.” Full post-Brexit

immigration requirements for employers are yet

to be confirmed, but it’s likely they will follow the

recommendations made by the Migration Advisory

Committee (see box out), whereby only certain

secondary school teachers will be on the shortage

occupation list so will not have to meet the proposed

salary threshold of £30,000. If they don’t already

have one, schools and training providers will have to

secure a sponsor’s licence so they can rubber-stamp

visas for overseas staff.

Faced with a dearth of candidates, schools

increasingly turn to agencies to fill the gap. As

schools lack the same marketing budget and

economies of scale of some of the major teaching

agencies, it can work out cost neutral, particularly

when attracting candidates from overseas. “When

a school advertises a job directly there’s often no

investment in SEO [search engine optimisation -

the mechanism that pushes a website higher up

Google search rankings], so the first jobs you see

as a candidate when you search are from the big

agencies. The candidates funnel through them,”

says Baljinder Kuller, founder of The Supply

Register, a recruitment platform for schools.

“Schools tell us they’re getting half a dozen

applicants for a job, when agencies see hundreds

of CVs every day.” Kuller notes that more and more

candidates are showing an interest in countries

where the curriculum is similar to the UK – but while

this interest was once towards New Zealand and

Canada, they’re increasingly attracted to a tax-free

post in middle-eastern countries such as Dubai

or Abu Dhabi – which in turn dilutes the market.

“There’s a lot of movement in that same pool of

available staff,” he adds.

“WE KNOW THAT THERE’S A HUGE PROBLEM WITH TEACHER RETENTION AND THE KNOCK-ON EFFECT OF THAT IS THAT WE HAVE TO RECRUIT MORE.”



LANGUAGE PROBLEM

One of the subject areas to be worst hit by Brexit-

related teacher shortages is modern foreign

languages. In April, Baroness Coussins, vice

president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists,

warned that around 35% of MFL teachers are non-

UK EU nationals. “Even if every single one of our

students now doing languages at university went

into teaching, the shortage of MFL teachers would

still not be met,” she told the House of Lords.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association

of School and College Leaders, cites a British

Council survey, which recently found that language

departments in English schools depend heavily on

teachers who are citizens of other EU countries.

“Sixty-seven percent of state secondaries have one

or more language teachers from this source,” he

says. “This is an important supply line because there

is a significant shortage of home-grown language

teachers. So, anything which makes it more difficult

for schools to recruit from EU countries would be

a disaster.” Unlike with science subjects where

certain knowledge is transferable or relatively

easily acquired, “sharing” MFL teachers across a

department is often unworkable, meaning schools

have to reduce the choice of languages on offer.

In the longer-term, another factor that could impact

the teacher labour market is migration, which could

affect numbers of pupils coming to the UK from

EU27 countries, although the DfE’s national pupil

projections predict numbers of secondary pupils will

continue to rise. NFER’s Worth notes that overall

migration to the UK is down from EU countries,

and this general trend is likely to continue. He says:

“If Brexit continues to affect migration statistics,

families up and down the country could leave and

this would have an impact on pupil numbers, which

then affects teacher numbers. There’s also the



broader issue of what the government does in terms

of fiscal policy, and how this will impact school

funding. Brexit hangs heavy over the public finances,

which obviously affects schools.”

Perhaps an unlikely silver lining among the clouds

on the horizon is that teacher recruitment tends to

benefit from a recession – in 2008 after the economic

crisis, teacher recruitment programmes became

oversubscribed. If leaving the EU has the same effect

on the UK economy in the coming years, we could

see a resurrection of this trend.

In the meantime though, the DfE estimates that

secondary schools in England will need 15,000 more

teachers between 2018 and 2025 to meet a 15% rise

in pupil numbers. So how else can schools overcome

the shortage? Recruitment company Education

Placement Group has been working with a number

of schools to offer teaching apprenticeships in a

bid to increase the pipeline of domestic candidates.

Ashcroft High School in Luton, for example,

now offers a one-year teaching apprenticeship

programme that guides graduates towards QTS.

“This is very effective because it enables schools to

‘grow their own’ teachers and use the levy to fund

the training,” says Robyn Johnstone, Group CEO

of EPG, which sources and screens applicants for

the school. “There are also government grants that

help contribute to the salary, which makes it much

more affordable. It is an additional route to teaching

that appeals to post graduate students given that it

is a job with training in a school. We’ve seen more

graduates attracted to this route which is a good

thing for teacher training.”

West Lea School, an Ofsted rated ‘Outstanding’

school for pupils with complex needs in Edmonton,

north London, has taken a similar approach in how

it recruits teaching assistants. It has developed

a bespoke special educational needs teaching

assistant apprenticeship, which will begin this year

with a cohort of 10. The qualification will take 12

to 18 months to complete. “We’ll aim to find them

a permanent position either with us or other local

schools,” explains Paul Quinn, executive school

business manager. “We’re also looking at a similar

pathway for teaching assistants with a specific

speech and language focus therapists. Like any

other school, we’re looking for innovative solutions

to fit the context we’re in.” For both teachers and

support staff, West Lea’s long-term focus is on

retention. He adds: “You have to give them realistic

career pathways and support them massively. We’re

known in our area for developing good teachers, TAs

and support staff. If we train someone and they move

on, we don’t see it as a negative.”

Another important factor is that salary remains

an issue when it comes to attracting people into

teaching. The government replaced national pay

scales with compulsory performance-related pay in

2013, but deregulation has not driven a significant

increase in salaries offered to teachers – academy

trusts and private schools still often face the same

budgetary constraints. “People say it’s a vocation

but teachers still need to pay their mortgage and

cover childcare, which makes it not as attractive to

graduates as other professions that require a similar

investment of time,” adds Hollis from NASBTT. That

said, even a few thousand on the compensation



package can make all the difference. “Academies do

compete with each other – there could be two trusts

in the same region, advertising the same role, but a

difference of several thousand. And anything on top

of low pay is better pay,” says Kuller. And when many

international schools with similar curricula can offer

significantly better salaries, EU citizens with QTS

may feel inclined to take their skills elsewhere.

When it comes to political priorities, school leaders

may feel that education is currently further down

the list than they would like. “The issue with Brexit

and education is that it’s eating up all the political

energy,” Quinn says. ”It can feel like we’re treading

water.” Uncertainty about budgets and immigration

policy makes it difficult to formulate a strategy to

plug recruitment gaps and support those that do

get hired. With little chance of a solution on the

horizon before the next academic year, it looks like

schools will have to continue to do more with less for

some time to come – and the impact of that on the

teachers responsible for delivering that is clear.

“ACADEMIES DO COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER – THERE COULD BE TWO TRUSTS IN THE SAME REGION, ADVERTISING THE SAME ROLE, BUT A DIFFERENCE OF SEVERAL THOUSAND. AND ANYTHING ON TOP OF LOW PAY IS BETTER PAY.”


WHERE DO SCHOOLS STAND ON IMMIGRATION POLICY?

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which

advises ministers on migration issues and makes

policy recommendations, set out its plans for post-

Brexit immigration arrangements in a white paper

last September. The headline recommendations

included a requirement for skilled professionals to

meet a £30,000 salary threshold, apart from those on

the ‘shortage occupation list’, which includes certain

medical practitioners and veterinary surgeons.

Once freedom of movement is removed as the UK

officially breaks away from the EU, where do schools

stand in terms of recruiting teachers from overseas?

“Under the current rules, schools need a Tier 2

sponsor license to recruit teachers from abroad.

When sponsoring teachers, schools will need to

ensure the job meets RQF Level 6, and the salary

awarded meets the financial threshold,” explains

Karendeep Kaur, senior immigration consultant

for immigration law firm Migrate UK. (Teaching

job codes are shown under Appendix J of the

immigration rules, she adds).

A few secondary school teaching job codes have

recently been added to the shortage occupation list:

namely maths, physics, science (where physics is

taught), computer science and Mandarin. However,

Kaur advises that schools need to be mindful that

all of these roles will be subject to a quota, as is the

case for non-EEA citizens now. “This means roles

which are not under the shortage occupation list will

be fighting for a place within the quota, which has

varied between 1,000 and 2,200 places a month since

April 2018 to March 2019.”

She adds: “The roles under the SOL will

automatically acquire points for being a code within

this list. Any jobs not on the list must acquire points

via salary, resident labour market test (RLMT) and

English Language proficiency. However, those on the

SOL will already be ahead with point scoring as they

will obtain points for being on the SOL as well as

salary.” This means that the £30,000 threshold may

become highly competitive, with recruiters having to

consider increasing salary to ensure they can hire

the right skills.

On top of this, schools recruiting from outside of

the EU until January 2021 (the current transition

deadline) will need to obtain a sponsor licence. After

this date, says Kaur, the government has indicated

it may no longer impose a quota system or require

employers to go through the RLMT, which may ease

the recruitment burden.


WHERE DO SCHOOLS STAND ON IMMIGRATION POLICY?


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WHAT IMPACT WILL BREXIT HAVE ON THE …...WHAT IMPACT WILL BREXIT HAVE ON THE TEACHING PROFESSION? As the UK’s eventual exit from the EU finally draws near, more stringent rules